


The Game of Mao

by mari4212



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Character Study, Character of Color, Fluff, Friendship, Games, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, down time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2012-07-24
Packaged: 2017-11-10 15:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/467732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mari4212/pseuds/mari4212
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard learned many things from his father.  He learned only one from his mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Game of Mao

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



> This was not the story I meant to tell. This was not even the story that I have fully plotted out, and with the first three hundred or so words stuck in an incomplete file on my desktop. If that story ever lets itself be fully written, I'll let you know.
> 
> This is the only story that would let itself be written after I went back and looked at the prompt again, and noted a request for downtime and fun.

Leonard McCoy was the son of a doctor and a good Southern lady. From his father, he learned that compassion and a listening ear solved more people’s problems than any fancy therapy, that little replaced a cup of tea with a medicinal shot of brandy in it, and how to recite the four chambers of the heart and the eight bones of the wrist before the age of six. He learned patience, thoroughness, and the proper application of a well-placed tirade when it came to the good of his patients. On a daily basis, he says that most of what he knows and does came straight from what he learned at his father’s side. 

From his mother, he learned to play cards. Mama McCoy played Bridge on Tuesdays with her tea ladies, Blackjack and War on Saturdays with her mother, Go Fish and Old Maids with her honorary nieces and nephews on Sundays after lunch, and Mao with anyone she could con into it. Some of his earliest memories involved her shuffling decks of cards between long, graceful fingers, a smirk trying to hide itself on her lips. When his father would shoo him out from underfoot, he’d go find his mother and play a game or two against her, losing horribly every time. He learned to love the precision and strategy of Bridge, the calculated risks of Blackjack, the speed and viciousness of War. Mao became his favorite, though, because it was never the same twice. 

At med school, he taught the study variant of it to his fellow dorm mates, and they’d play late into the evenings the night before a test, part desperate review, part deliberate unwinding of tension. On average, his friends who studied with him scored at least five points higher with Mao review than they did on their own. A slight variation on the med school study Mao was the only way he got through Starfleet Academy’s endless drill on regulations. When he started serving onboard ships and stations, or traveling to various planets for research, he found that a deck of cards never put him above weight restrictions for his gear, but did do a lot to keep him from killing his crewmates. Endless games of solitaire kept his hands flexible and limber, and his mind distracted enough from the restrictions of life onboard a ship. 

By the time he hit the _Enterprise_ , Leonard had decided that there were three basic types of people in the universe: those who played Mau and loved it, those who played Mau and hated it, and those who never figured it out and quit in a huff midway through their first game. He tended to categorically dismiss that last group of people as not worth the effort to get to know them. 

It didn’t take long to recruit a few other good players. Scotty was always too busy with his beloved engines, and beyond that had previous commitments to what was evidently a long-running and cutthroat game of poker held in the engineering department, and Kirk had his games of chess with Spock in the evenings, but Sulu, Uhura, Janice, and Christine were all card players of long duration. They traded off their games, of course. Bridge only worked when one of them had to call off because of other duties, and most of the time it was him canceling in that case. Blackjack and Go Fish were for when they were tired, or for after missions from hell, when they all needed to unwind more than anything else, and couldn’t hold anything more complicated without bursting. On slow shifts in sickbay, he and Christine would often pull out a deck and play War. Uhura loved Spite and Malice, and would always chose that game when it was her turn to pick. All things considered, they only played Mao every three months or so. Just long enough apart that specific rules were forgotten, but often enough that the game-play was more fun than frustrating for everyone. 

Tonight was a Mao night. Christine was on shift in sickbay, and Janice had been commandeered by Kirk to help him sort through the endless reams of reports that he’d been putting off for the past three crises. Uhura and Sulu had come straight off shift from the bridge and claimed their favorite table, along with enough food and drink to keep them all going long into the night. Leonard grinned as he headed over, nodding at Spock, who sat at the next table over, a bowl of soup cooling before him as he focused intently on his data pad. Leonard half expected to be ignored, much was when Spock was truly fascinated by a scientific anomaly. Spock’s disinterested nod in return was a pleasant surprise, but one Leonard didn’t focus on long, with a plate of pasta and salad in front of him and the promise of a long night’s card game ahead. 

Uhura began shuffling while he ate, the cards nearly flying in her skilled hands as she split and shuffled, split and shuffled. All the while she talked, her low musical voice adding depth and interest as she caught him up on ship’s gossip. “You’ll want to watch out, Ainsley in security has a crush on Christine, he’ll probably do something stupid to impress her and wind up in sickbay with a wrenched back sooner rather than later.”

Leonard sighed. “Lord save me from idiots in love with oblivious women. If I thought it would do any good I’d show up for a talk and pull out my disapproving father act. It needs some practice before I try it out on Joanna’s beaus.” 

Hikaru snickered. “I’ll lend you a fencing foil, if you promise to use it on the next person who annoys Janice. There’s an admiral in particular that seems to think she got her position only because Kirk likes to look at an attractive woman while he fills out reports. She’s asked me to keep out of it and not mention it to the Captain, but she didn’t say anything about telling you.”

Uhura rolled her eyes, and Leonard bit back a snarl. He had a feeling he knew precisely which admiral Sulu was talking about. “Jim likes beautiful women, but he wants them interested and not under his command. Anyone with any sense knows Janice got her place from being the only admin to ever not put up with any of Jim’s nonsense. Though, I do admit that rules out at least half the brass in Starfleet. Most of them got promoted to get them out of the way of the real work.”

He sighed and shoved aside his empty plate. “If it gets much worse, I’ll mention it to him. I’m pretty sure she’d prefer to handle it herself until then.” 

Waving to Uhura, she expertly passed out thirteen cards apiece, then placed the remaining cards in the center of the table. McCoy waited patiently until she flipped a card face-up, then pulled her own hand towards herself and glanced at it before he dared to look at his own cards. Sulu wasn’t so patient, and it didn’t surprise Leonard at all to hear Uhura chiding Sulu to take a card. “You know better than that,” she said. 

McCoy sorted his own hand briefly, two aces and an eight would help a lot in gameplay. The first card was a black ten, so counting down he had four cards he could use relatively quickly. If Uhura hadn’t already instituted it, he’d add in the solitaire rule, reds on blacks and blacks on red, because it always messed Hikaru up. He glanced up from his cards and briefly caught Spock’s eyes. The Vulcan had seemingly abandoned his data, and was instead looking curiously over at the card game. Well. Kirk had been on him recently to be more inviting to Spock, and Mao was always best when there was a new player to confound. He spoke up. “You’re welcome to join us, Spock, if you can bear a very illogical game.” 

Uhura looked back over one shoulder and smiled at Spock. Outside of Kirk, she often seemed to get along best with the man. “Yes, please join us, Mr. Spock.”

Spock raised a brow, then nodded. “I spend a great deal of my time around illogical beings and actions, Dr. McCoy,” he said. “A card game with agreed-upon rules will be a refreshing break.”

Leonard bit back a smirk as Uhura scooted her chair closer to Sulu, leaving room for Spock to come and sit between her and Leonard. This was going to be fun. As Spock sat down, Uhura dealt out a set of cards for him while Leonard spoke up, “The only rule I am allowed to tell you about Mao is this one.” 

Spock raised a brow again, but did not question further as Uhura began the game with the traditional words, “The game of Mao is officially begun.”

**Author's Note:**

> For information about the game of Mao, go [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_%28card_game%29). 
> 
> I was first introduced to this game in college, where it was actually played as a study aid by several of my friends. At first, it is the most illogical, confusing game ever. Even after you've played it for a while, there can always be new rules added, which you only figure out by breaking them. I thought McCoy would love it, and Spock would hate it, but be eternally fascinated by it none-the-less. I'm sorry I cut it off right as I finished the set-up, but sometimes the punchline can only be less interesting than the set-up.


End file.
